Draugar are the walking dead, ghost-like but corporeal beings whose spirits have refused to entirely abandon their bodies. They are found most often in the barrows and pits where they were buried, and often guard their grave-goods jealously, but appear wherever men die; sea-draugar are particularly well known, and form the basis of many sailors' stories. Most are bound to no particular location, though they may prefer not to leave.

These revenants are corpse-black or corpse-pale; bloated or withered in death, they carry the unmistakable marks (and smells) of decay. A draugr grows slowly in death, along with its nails, hair (if not fallen out), and sometimes teeth; older draugar often grow larger than any man, and may develop strange, inhuman traits that seem borrowed from local beasts or the nearby environment. The oldest are inhuman indeed, sometimes unrecognizably so. Many seem to be able to control their manifestations to some extent; some appear not at all, or only as dry, inanimate bones, if certain conditions have not been met. Gravelights often appear as they manifest.

Not all those who die rise again. Those who have died with works unfinished are more likely to return, although the process remains essentially unpredictable; the vengeful, the jealous, the corrupt, and those who have died in a place of power are also more likely to grow unquiet in their graves. They typically retain much of the will and personality of the deceased, but can grow twisted and hostile in death. Many Yddr cultures' burial traditions include rites designed to prevent the deceased's return, often involving cold iron or various manipulations of the corpse; their effectiveness varies.

In combat, a draugr is a deadly foe. Even the weakest such creature is stronger than any ordinary man; their withered flesh may grow hard as iron, able to turn blows as effectively as the thickest mail, and many may call upon stranger powers to aid them. Worse, draugar cannot be conventionally defeated; though their dead flesh may be destroyed, the creatures will always return unless appeased or disposed of in special and usually difficult ways.

Though most intertwined with the cultures of Ydra and the Isle of Blain (thus their consonant-rasping name), draugar can be found in any region that has had people pass through it at some point in the past. Every existing variety of sentient, barring the relurim, has at least one recorded draugr sighting.